welcome to a scrap life a podcast solely focus on the hustlers Grinders operators and business owners who live and breathe the scrap metal industry every day we are the original recyclers no suits required just guts and hard work here is your host Brett eart what’s going on everybody I wanted to upload this podcast I did with steuart Kagan called borne Scrappy it’s a podcast he’s doing with people all throughout the recycling industry and I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking to him for about an hour I love Stewart’s enthusiasm his energy for our industry and if you get a chance go check him out on Spotify or on Apple iTunes under borne Scrappy hi I’m Stu Kagan welcome to Born Scrappy the podcast for scrap metal exporters and Traders join me in conversation with some of the most experienced Traders and operators that have helped shape this incredible industry once a month I’m going to mix it up and have a master class on a topic I think may be of interest to you in today’s first Master Class episode we focus on entrepreneurship with Brett eart Brett is one of

the most well-known Personalities in the metal recycling industry but Brett strength isn’t only Scrap Metal He’s a Serial entrepreneur owning businesses like United Metal Recycling TV Pipe Supply United hauling Tire reclaim United Storage recycled media copper reclaim and more I know right where does he find the time but that’s not all he’s also the host of a few podcasts including a scrap life and recycled Idaho in this extended episode we discuss things like what’s better than a lemonade stand to learn about business what things can and can’t be taught why failing is so important why unlike sport we can all win and so much more I had a great time recording this and I’m excited for you to have a listen but first intro welcome to Born Scrappy I’m very excited to have Brett eart on the show today and uh we’ll be doing a master class on entrepreneurship so who better to join us thanks for joining us Brett I don’t know you’re too kind man you’re too kind but I uh I I appreciate what you’re doing what uh what you and your wife are doing really you’re kind of like

a husband wife entrepreneur team yourself right yeah very much so we do love the space so I thought it would be cool to reach out to you and uh just have a chat about all things entrepreneurship so I love it man fire away let’s uh let’s get this uh let’s get this thing on so just to to clarify um for the podcast so the podcast is really focused on exports and trading of recyclable metal but for this one every few weeks we’re going to throw in a bit of a master class where we’re going to talk about something specific that we think the listeners would really be interested in and obviously there’s heaps of owner operators that are exporters and uh they they they’re constantly looking at other opportunities and and how to do their own business better so um yeah I thought we start with an entrepreneurship one just to make it a little exciting yeah I like it I like it yeah Bret tell me about entrepreneurship is it a muscle that you find you were born with or is it something you train on a daily basis I think it’s both

right like I I think about it like uh like LeBron James right he was born physically gifted you know he was probably would have been good he was a good football player he was a good B obviously a great basketball player I mean I I think that you’re given a certain skill set when you’re born and then it’s up to you to hone that skill set you know it’s up to you to practice it and work on it and and try and get better at it right so we’re all born you know physically some of us are 6’8 you know and a mountain of a man and and some of of us are 5 foot five right but but the at the end of the day like we were given a certain skill set you know maybe it’s speed maybe it’s strength maybe it’s a brain power maybe it’s you know um ability to you know like you know I liken it to some people they just have that like adrenaline capability where they can jump off any clip do eight back clips and they don’t even think twice about it you know and

then there’s like people like me who I don’t even I I’ll jump off but you’re going to have to get me like three or four beers like motivated you know so and I I’m not doing any back flips or anything so I think to answer your question it’s it’s like a little bit of both it’s I was I’m a third generation um in the industry I and and more I’m third generation entrepreneur right I mean my my grandfather started our business in 72 with a sixth grade education and I don’t think he was really necessarily financially successful but he was just a scrappy individual right he wasn’t he wasn’t afraid to try he wasn’t afraid to to do and go and then my when my dad came along you know my dad was cut from a similar cloth and he was you know maybe he’s a high school educated individual so then he was able to take it a little bit farther and I think that I I’m probably you know cut from that entrepreneur cloth I just have have maybe a few more um you know I just hone the skill a little

bit better I guess is all I can say yeah yeah I hear you man um I think you got to be born with a certain skill or a certain something to really be able to deal with entrepreneurship you know it’s not just going to work every day and and doing the dayto day it’s the roller coaster ride that it is um and it’s not for everybody you know the media make it look really exciting and glamorous but damn it’s hard man yeah it’s it’s I I liken it to that you know if you’ve ever seen mean I’ve heard people discuss before it’s the media makes it like you they show you the duck like floating on top of the water right and he’s just all cool and he’s calm and he’s just hanging out but what they don’t show you is like the legs underneath I mean they’re just working their ass off like just just to stay floating right like you don’t see that you just see the duck sitting there like looking at the sky and just hanging out but his legs man he’s just they’re going crazy and I feel like

there’s a certain amount of like entrepreneurship that is like that you know or at least gets portrayed that way and for sure nobody nobody really knows like how many things it takes I mean just to keep the lights on you know and and I I’ve kind of made some posts about that people call me hey what’s going on how’s things going I’m like the lights are on you know it’s a yeah it’s a good day you know like it’s yeah and if you look at it any more than that you know like you start as soon as you start patting yourself on the your back or as soon as you start you know getting down you know or the other way like soon as you start getting down in the dumps and and thinking that you know there’s no end in sight like you have to remember that anything that was ever built that was worth a you know took a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears and you know I think that’s always been my Approach like if it was easy then everybody would do it everybody be doing it and and it’s

not easy and but you know it gets portrayed that way sometimes yeah um I was chatting to somebody the other day and I was saying um the media portrayed like James Bond right it’s like super cool and he’s with the ladies and he’s living this cool life but it’s more like Indiana Jones you’ve like constantly got this massive Boulder like chasing you and at any time if you slip that Boulder is going to roll over you and you always kind of land in a in a big pit with full of snakes it’s like you don’t know how it’s going to end right it’s a great yeah that’s a great analogy I think there’s a lot there’s a lot to be said for that like that’s probably a more accurate analogy you know of just kind of the trials and tribulations of you know you’re always you know I I always say like you know like you think about as an entrepreneur where you’re like you know there’s gold and then there heels you know but it’s the travel like it’s the process of getting up there and yeah you as an entrepreneur you believe

deep down inside that there is there is it’s gold up there but you just it takes what it the what it takes to get there is it’s a whole another conversation yeah that’s a whole journey absolutely and you’ve got to be able to cope with the journey and enjoy the journey um and that’s what makes entrepreneurship fun if you can yeah and um I enjoy the process of it right you know I enjoy the grittiness of trying to figure out and solve the problem but as much as I also enjoy like building things and I think if you’re a builder like if you’re a person that enjoys building and not necessarily in a physical sense like you know but like you just like building and watching things grow and and move and change and and if you’re that type of individual then you could probably have some success as an entrepreneur if you find that thing that you’re really passionate about yeah absolutely that’s that analogy of you know jumping off the cliff towards the opportunity and building the airplane on the way down right I’m blessed to have a wife who who loves

to build airplanes so and I just look for the opportunities and jump off the clip so yeah yeah partner I’m sure we’ll touch on a bit of Partnerships and and what’s important there but and I know how you feel about that as well so it’ll be great to to talk a bit more about that but I wanted to ask one question before we get into some specific entrepreneurship stuff did you have a lemonade stand or trade baseball cards as a kid you know I was always just kind of like a hustler right you know I was going down to my parents we just had one little family scrapyard and we weren’t like by any stretch some big amazing company but my grandfather and my grandmother were there and my my dad was outside my mom was working we we I went down there every Saturday I watched cartoons in the office every Saturday morning you know my sister and we just hung out we were just around business right we were around and it started out as simple as like counting the the candy counting the money that came through the candy machine you

know and the pot machine stacking all the quarters and like organizing it that was a job that we could do in the office then it came okay now maybe you can sweep the floors and then and I was always kind of like a good deal guy right right so I was always on the hunt for what could I do to kind of take something of lesser value and turn into more value I would go get these steelies I call them steelies you know even when I was growing up people played marbles like it wasn’t a big thing but people were always playing marbles why would get the bearings from like the scrapyard polish them all up and nobody had access to steelies right like everybody had all the cool marbles but like I had an endless supply of Ste of Barry right I poish them up be like oh cuz you know if you had a steel you could crush in marbles right Circle you splatter everybody but uh and I would be trading you know I was always trading and doing and trying to like upgrade and and next thing you know I

had like all the best all the best marbles all the best because I just found something of kind of lower value and figured out a way to turn it into something better so like did I ever have like a lemonade stand no I I really but no I just I I I I would could go to work every day and just see the process of how business was being done and then when I got to about like 10 11 years old I started work in the recycling center on Saturdays from 8 to noon I I would do the purchasing for all the aluminum cans that came through in Idaho it’s not a buyback state so you’re not counting them you’re actually have to weigh the cans we buy them by the pound so I spent those years like dealing with the general public and like buying cans and then the thing is like if you’ve ever worked in a recycling center like everybody’s trying to you like they’re trying to put rocks in the cans and diapers and you know I’ve seen everything come through there right so you’re trying to weigh the cans

and make the deal with the guy like do you pay him 25 cents a pound do you pay him 40 cents a pound do they have this much weight and you’re just always trying to cut a deal right you have to make money but you also don’t want to get screwed on your weight but you also don’t want to screw your customer so my 11 a stand and was just dealing with the general public and just you know from a very young age just trying to buy even something simple as aluminum cans and everything that came to recycling center man I tell you what that’s a lot tougher and a better place to learn than a lemonade stand where everybody feels bad and feels like they should give you a few dollars for some lemonade you’re a kid on the side of the street no one’s doing you favors uh when you’re buying their cans no they’re trying to screw you like literally they’re doing yeah they’re trying to like get over because they’re like oh this young ass kid like watch this like we’re going to pull one over on him you know

and so I got like the School of Hard KNX look right out the gate you know to remember story when I was when I was young at the end of the day like you know we may I might buy on a Saturday like four 500 lbs of aluminum cans and at the we had a machine and we still have it to this day that um that it’s a brick keter right says 25 lb bricks so you would you buy the cans you ran them that day you weit up at the end of the day so you basically take all your purchases against how many pounds that you had and so we you could basically balance your books at the end of the day and I remember like going through and I I so I bought like let’s say just for example like 400 pounds of cans across the scale and then I weighed it up at the end of the day and I had like 500 pounds of cans right and I was remember being so proud I told my dad I was hey man like I I paid for 400 pounds of cans

I got 500 my dad was like no you no that’s not like that’s not the game like you screwed over the customers though yeah he’s like don’t you can’t he’s like I don’t want to hear that he goes I want to hear that you were really close you know and I was like oh yeah he’s like no we can’t we’re not trying to see how much we can actually get like we’re trying to make sure that we’re not over overpaying yeah exactly and so and that you know but that was a good lesson you know my dad taught that one early as well yeah oh man that’s classic yeah who needs eliminate s that’s awesome and Brett moving I me guess fast forwarding to um you know where you are now with the amount of different businesses that you have going on in the opportunities that you probably constantly see in front of you as well how you know what are the strategies that you use to stay ahead of market trends um identify gaps um so that you can make sure that whatever Ventures that are brought to you or your looking at

um are going to be profitable I think the first and the biggest thing as I surround myself with good people right I mean there’s no other way I don’t make no bones about that that I I’m not the smartest person in in the room right and I do that on purpose you know I have an accountant that’s a whiz right and then I have a banker who’s a CPA who we hired and we brought him in like on the so that on the accounting side we have you know people that have vast knowledge of run of the numbers on a potential opportunity right and then I have just killers on the operation side so like what I’ve done is I’ve went around and I’ve just looked for people of a similar mentality I.E they’re like Hustlers and they want to like build something but they have very different character traits and like say some are a little more um not as public in nature they’re not as like outgoing but they’re smart own right or than I have like guys that are super mechanically strong um that and I’m just not like I’m

not a great mechanic you know I don’t know a lot about the ins and outs of equipment you know I know what that piece of equipment can do but I don’t know I don’t know I can’t work on right yeah and so I’ve just went and I’ve made it my mission to grow the business and and the only way I could do that is I had to go get people that were that knew way more about everything than me and then say okay like then kind of put them all together and say hey let’s let’s build this thing um whatever it is so when it comes to New Opportunities you know I if if depending on what the opportunity is I’ll run it through the through the system and say okay like numbers does it make sense like mechanically does it make sense like Logistics wise you know I run through my Logistics guy does this make sense and then I kind of can form a pretty good consensus about like would it be a good Venture for us and then what can we leverage you know that we already have in place against

it and then um move forward or not and then just kind of start trying to put the pieces in place so Brett you uh I know that you played football right you played college football I did and years but by the sound of everything you’ve just said that full story of how you manage it it makes me think of team sports like yeah it it’s the first thing that comes to my mind I played a lot of rugby very passionate about team sports um I think entrepreneurs that have that experience have a different Edge um it’s not the only Edge they need but it’s a different Edge it’s about putting that team together and that’s so vital um do you think you learned a lot of that playing sports or where do you think you got 100% I was just talking to somebody yesterday a very similar they asked me a very similar question that you just asked me and I said you know when I’m out looking for people I do ask that question like hey have you ever played team sports it’s like is that you know only because you know on

team sports so I coach my son’s um football team basketball team and and and I and I tell them every then these are young kids right I mean third grade and I’m like okay like do your job if you do your job and then you do your job like we’re going to be successful but if you try and do his job and then he tries to do your job we’re going to have everybody over here and we’re not going to be spread out and we’re going to be in trouble right and it’s very similar in in in business right like you got people that are used to playing team sports they know what their their specialty is they know what their job is like I also like them to be able to look across and understand what these other positions are doing but knowing that we have really good people in those positions yeah that if they just do their job really well then we got a pretty good chance of of being successful right and carving out those Lanes carving out out that like hey you know this is your lane just be

really good at that and then and I think that’s a team sports mentality um you know my sister and I both grew up you know playing team sports my sister played uh five years of rugby at UNLV um Las Vegas so she’s a rugby like she’s a baller cool yeah and so it’s in our it’s in our blood to to get in there and like get a little bit uh grimy you know yeah yeah I love that it’s quite funny so I always um did very similar things when I was hiring people when I was back in South Africa when we hired a huge team we had 4,200 people there working for us and I would often hire and what I used to look for and this is maybe a bit of a rugby analogy but I’m sure you can relate it to football was I always look for the people that worked really hard not the ones that scored the touchdown or the rugby the tries they weren’t the ones that I necessarily wanted I wanted the team player who wasn’t about showboating he wasn’t about he have to be the one

who finished it off and get all the Limelight and in ragby you’d call those the forwards I was a forward and we used to call the Wingers the ones who scored all the tries you know they were the ones that um Wanted all the photos and and made sure their hair looked good when they scored their try we were getting stuck in we came out full of mud and blood so um those are the guys I want to be surrounded by my team I think that’s smart man I I also I I believe that it’s I don’t know the the end of the day like if you got people that have a similar mentality and they want the same thing and you’re you’re going to have success but it’s it if you got people that that are trying to take the credit for everything right and people ask me how you do this how you this I’m like I don’t do it like I’m a piece of the puzzle like I got a great team that that that makes happen you know and yeah it just so happens I’m the one that’s that gets

the opportunity to speak about it but it’s not it’s not just me sitting back here you know doing everything there’s there there’s such a we have such a you know great group of individuals that are all you know putting their time in and doing doing what they do but you’re 100% correct I I can’t teach you how to be a good human I can’t teach you how to work hard and have that work ethic but I but I can teach you how to sell pipe or I can teach you how to buy scrap or I can teach you how to run an excavator right and if I can’t teach you somebody within our organization can teach you that I can’t teach you to show up at work five minutes early either you have that in you or you don’t right I can’t teach you to want to stay and and make some overtime because the works there and we need it done like I can’t teach you that but yeah I can teach you how to do the job our team can teach you any skill that we know and the any industry that

we’re in we can teach you that but I I can’t put the work ethic in you I can’t put the you know that um the ego or lack of ego in you I I can’t do that for you you got to do that but the rest of it man we can we got confident in our skills we can teach you how to do that I think I think to summarize that whole point it might be just to when hiring focus on attitude right we can teach you everything else we can’t teach you attitude you can’t train we can’t train you in Attitude yeah if you hire the right people with the right attitude you can go a long way so Brett and sometimes like to that point like I don’t want to cut you off but I do want this to be part of it is look for people outside of your industry like from an entrepreneur standpoint like it’s not if you want good people sometimes you got to stretch and look for like you know look for individuals that you can see are driven and maybe they’re not exactly happy with what

they’re doing right now is for a career but if you can provide them good culture and an opportunity to grow and build and do they may not know about scrap or about trucks or whatever that is but if you’re like hey man I like your attitude and you’ve got a good you know you’ve got a good way way about you the way you speak to people the way you you know go about your business I think you’d fit on our team and then you just go find a spot for them right like I don’t I don’t just find a find a hole and put them in and say hey like this is a good you’re going to you’re going to really you know push our business because you want to grow and you want to do like your attitude’s right like don’t don’t stop drinking the same muddy water right like go look and see what’s out there like bring them into your industry yeah absolutely I got I mean my example of that is um I hired a barista a lady who made coffee for me and I used to go in at

6:00 I used to get there just before 6:00 every morning it was around the corner from my yard and she was always there 15 minutes before it opened she was always smiling and happy at 6:00 a.m. right she was always happy always joking with me super friendly I ended up hiring as one of our sales reps because like I just knew she had the right attitude she knew nothing about scrap but it didn’t matter we could teach her scrap but that attitude was just exactly what we needed so whether it’s a barista in a coffee shop you know a salesperson you meet whatever it is I agree with you 100% you know yeah and Brit you’re into a lot of different things and yes a lot of them are aligned to our industry you know if you take the tires it’s very similar operations and and the tire recycling of course it’s recycling it’s doing incredible work um you’ve got the pipes which are aligned to the scrap you’ve then got the storage units as well which I would say isn’t necessarily aligned yeah yeah exactly but so my question

to you is well where do opportunities come from are they things in general that you wake up in the night and you had a dream about the storage units or is it that somebody’s brought this to you and then the other question along those lines is what comes first is it the jockey for the horse or is it the horse right so um I’m a big believer that the jockey is so important everybody’s got ideas it’s all about execution so if you have the right jockey um do you find the person and then find opportunity for them or do you find opportunity and then go looking for a person I think i’ I’ve done it both ways right like the tire deal is a great example like I had a tire problem and I had kind of been talking to a couple guys and we had been kind of writing up this business plan like okay we could do this we could buy this machine we could you know shred tires and and process them and do whatever and and then uh those two guys ended up backing out on the deal because their

existing careers kind of took them in different directions and and I really liked him and I was really kind of trying to to hire both of them and trying to put together this business but for you know certain Deputy purposes or whatever like one got a promotion the other one moved and and and both great guys and so I was like okay okay so I had this idea I had the business plan I had a pile of tires so then I’m like I just sat on it right and just kind of smoldered and just waited and I I thought there was an opportunity there I thought there was something there but I didn’t really um I didn’t have the right the right jockey for the horse right the horse was in the stable and it was waiting right and then I had met this guy via LinkedIn who was um in in like the manure business but essentially he was basically creating fertilizer um a cow manure and and sell it to these Farmers whatever else he’s kind of an entrepreneurial individual and he hit me up one time said hey I’m going to

exit this business and I was like oh come in talk to me and so we kind of were just talking just kind of like you and I and I said hey man I’ve kind of been smoldering smoking on this idea and I think I’ve got a lot of the pieces in place but I need somebody that could run it you know like run it like it’s theirs but kind of go through he’s already kind of understood the kind of recycling if you will process and what it takes to take something and turn it into something right and so and so I said you know hit me up like if it’s something you’re interested in like let’s let’s let’s further the conversation and and then from then on he called me back said hey I was able to you know exit out of this existing partnership I’m I’m available to work and I said let’s go man I said I’s I said I’ll buy the shredder I said let’s let’s let’s make this thing happen and we kind of sat down hash through it and then we just you know gas you know all gas

no breakes and I think that that is an example of I had the horse but no jockey for it right and then when we started the storage business I I had the land and and I didn’t really know what we were going to do with it and then my my CFO which is my probably one of my best friends he said hey man we got this banker and he’s he’s good man he’s a killer he’s like he’d be like awesome on our team and I was like well we don’t need another CFO like we have one you’re good like we don’t need like we I don’t need an office full of Bankers you know and he’s like all right well let’s just think about like what we could do you know and so I I met with them and I really liked him and and I was like all right we got to find something for this guy to do like I we got to find a business for him to he and he was had kind of was starting to develop a little bit of residential property and I met with him and

I said hey I’ve been kind of thinking about this whole story gig I’ve got the land I can buy the steel I’ve got relationships on the steel side I was like I think we can kind of use our existing infrastructure and and The Leverage that we have right and maybe we could go and like develop storage facilities on land that we already own and I was like if this is something you want to do I said then you know let’s let’s let’s build a business off of the back of that right and then from then on he goes he goes yeah I’m tired of being a banker and I was like it and come on over to the dark side like let’s go build something you know and so it was that one I that was a really good jockey we had to find a horse for right and that guy’s been awesome for our business because he has a really strong banking background um so he can do all the underwriting and kind of helps us like any with any other loans and any other banking stuff we need so he’s he’s really

brought even more to the table than just say helping us build the storage facility and so like I think I’ve went both ways like I’m just like an opportunist in the fact I’m just looking for whichever direction it goes just trying to keep my eyes open and say okay how can we how can we do it yeah I wanted to I wanted to make sure I didn’t pitch that question in a way that every listener thought that they should hit a bre now for every opportunity that they have yeah well I just no I just use I use existing assets existing leverage that I have in a certain Market whether it’s geography be or capabilities and I say what can I do within this industry and that I’ve already kind of have maybe one or two pieces of puzzle and I just need like three and four right because then I’m can I can be ahead of of somebody because I’ve already got a couple things in place that would be very difficult for somebody else to find right or to acquire so but with all of this comes risk I mean you must

sit up at night yeah um although you’re probably like me and actually don’t lose any sleep on it because we’re probably stoic in that way and it’s just we kind of move forward and and we focus on the opportunities and yeah we we consider risk so we must always be careful there but how do you manage risk and how do you assess it and when all these opportunities are in front of you like big picture-wise I don’t lose a lot of sleep man like I honestly like I grew up with not much right like little family scrapyard and in 1997 my dad needed to retire my grandfather and he didn’t have any money because the business didn’t make any money and so the only way he could do that was he had got snitzer steel which at that time was not a publicly traded company they were still a privately held company he got them to buy 50% of our family business and basically get enough money to give my grandfather retired and then they gave us um a million doll basically line of credit and then we had to pay 700 grand

for this new Sierra shear and then we had a couple 100 grand left over to buy scrap right this was in 1997 and I don’t if you know your scrap history that well but in 1998 the market took a like you couldn’t give the away so here my parents are they already gave 50% of their business up they retired my grandfather they have no cash they have no like and this was my junior year of high school right and they’re just like battling every day to keep the lights on you know and so I got a lot of respect for what it takes to get stuff done and I don’t live too high on the hog like I just personally I don’t because I’m I don’t need that like I get my rush off of the day-to-day grind and so I don’t need a lot and so I’m always like you know to the to a certain extent what the are you you going to take from me like I got I got a a I got a great family my wife my kids like like what are you going like what

are you going to do to me like at the end of the day I’ve taken 20 years or 40 years or whatever of of of learning and doing and if if you took it all from me today I got a pretty good feeling that like give me 5 10 years I could get it back right like yeah and so like for me to get too worked up about something like you know really sideways on me like big picture- wise like I’m like H I’m good like what are you going to take my birthday away but but uh but in the in the in the dayto day I have super smart like calculated Killers right like my CFO him and I sit right next to each other so I’m at working from home today but in the like when I’m at out the office like him and I are like we could damn near Reach Out And Touch each other right right like the guy that candles the money and takes care of like he’s like very on his game you know and then we have a CPA you know our Banker the guy that

helped build the storage business like we have him like just you know a rock throw away just right down the hall so it’s like and financially we we keep a very uh structured way of we do things we don’t just say yes to every opportunity we vet it and I think that I have a level of comfort because I have such really good people around me my buddy that uh I played college football with we came in as true freshman together he is one of my best friends I’ve known him you know since I’ve been 18 years old we drank a lot of beer we’ve done a lot lot of things together before we ever even did a day of business right um he does all a insurance HR I mean basically president of United medals right like so I got a guy that I wholeheartedly trust his decision making process like in probably one of the other most key positions that you can have right and so yeah yeah I’m like if goes sideways then we’ll just figure out how to deal with it yeah it’s um it comes through in in so

many of your posts as well and obviously we started on the whole topic of surrounding yourself with the right people um yeah and you definitely you definitely you know you don’t have to worry about it necessarily so it doesn’t have to keep night you know that you’re surrounded by people not only that they’re they’re very intelligent and passionate but actually they’ve got your back because they are also actually your friends and that that’s just massive like I’ve got my wife who I know has my back right she has the family at heart and she’s the one that assesses um opportunities and makes sure that she does a deep dive into everything before we just jump at it I like to jump at the clip from it you know the next shiny thing is always what’s attracting me and she’s me down hold on I need to do a 70 page bus Plan before we throwing anything into that so I’m very lucky to have that as well and as a leader it’s your job to have their back like those people they reason that I think that they they take such good care and

they’re such good stewards of our money our people our businesses is because they know that I’m willing to do the same right like yeah I tell them all the time I said if you start seeing me driving around in fancy cars and and taking money and buying you know that you’re like that don’t make no sense I said then you should start questioning what’s going on right tell everybody I’m like here’s the deal if you if you see me just investing every day back in the business and you see me like every day like grinding and and trying to be a part of it then then you know like I’m all in right I’m bought in now if you start seeing me just taking taking taking and not giving giving then if I was you I’d leave cuz it’s time to go because it ain’t it’s not going to last right and I think that’s a big big part of it like if I start taking then you’re not getting then it’s you got to go and you gotta that’s how it has to be treated and I believe that you know I said

if we’re building something then we’re building something together and that’s how it’s got to be yeah that’s definitely your team background that that comes to play again when I think about risk I think about the other end of the spectrum right and so the one thing is you can tell and you can go okay business opportunities massive amount of risk could be in front of you or or not much risk right so you can weigh up all the opportunities I once heard a story um and it was a guy and he was talking about public speaking and a lot of people are very afraid of public speaking he said before you take any risk you need to go through what could go wrong and he said with public speaking usually you find if you keep asking what could go wrong and then you solve it the last thing they usually end on is something like my pants could fall off right in front of the whole crowd and it would be super embarrassing so how do you solve that put on a belt now go up and make your speech right I love that

idea like just go through it what can go wrong and deal with that situation but it’s often people’s like egos that get in the way right like they don’t want the public loss like they don’t they don’t want and that’s why like you know like two weeks week ago we we wrecked one of our trucks right I posted it I like like we do St we do dumb like our guys we’re not perfect right I mean yeah like happens to us too like most nobody will ever post and say like we had a shitty day we you know things went eight ways sideways for us but like the reality of it is like the genuiness of of business and and and Entrepreneurship and how you do stuff is like you you got to tell the whole the whole story like you know don’t just show all the shiny objects right like yeah there’s a lot of like you know failures that come along and I people ask me you know like and I said I trust me like I can name on one hand I could start firing on you all the ones I’ve

tried and fail right like I mean yeah I failed at an auto auction I mean I failed at I had an auto salvage in Mountain Home like I couldn’t get that thing off the ground I didn’t have the operational wherewithal to get that deal done you know I I failed at like a a startup early when I was first stting um like on a like basic a buy sell scrap um website I mean I could go down the list but I can also say like I’ve tried you know like I and I learned something from each one of those failures and if you’re not failing man then you’re not pushing the envelope hard enough that’s to me is just the way it is absolutely suc I love the quote Success is the worst um is the worst teacher yeah right exactly you don’t learn anything when you successful that that’s great and you know it’s if if you are successful with your first Venture the scary thing with that is if it’s 10 years down the line and something goes wrong you haven’t got any lessons that you’ve learned so you’re not used to

dealing with that I love the idea of fail fast um and I think you actually mentioned you read shoe dog the other day I think he talks about it as well for night um talks about you have to fail fast your learnings from that will be what helps you grow in the future yeah and I think if any entrepreneur out there it’s a long book but and I’ve read a lot of books listen to a lot of books read a lot of different things um I got so much out of that book because everybody thinks about Nike they think about this great company this you know humongous brand and just I mean all this success and rightfully so they’ve been you know Uber successful right what they don’t talk about is all the trials and tribulations that Phil Knight went through to getting that thing off the ground right like I mean getting sued by the government you know having his main shoe supplier from Japan basically cut him off at the knees and trying to work around him to the point that he had to go there and basically invent and make a

his own shoe to just basically stay in business like he never intended to be a shoe manufacturer he intended to be a shoe distributor yeah but he was forced to change right and yeah and but only people don’t they they get lost because they just want the cliffnotes version of something and I think you can do yourself a disservice by taking the cliffnotes version of of somebody’s success and only seeing the success and not seeing all the things they had to go through to achieve that success yeah oh I love the book I mean I posted a while ago that it’s probably my favorite um autobiography or biography it’s it’s incredible man and I think any entrepreneur out there if you haven’t read shoe dog yet you have to read it you you know it’s easy to go age it’s easy to think you know I think there’s that saying something about um every overnight success took 20 years to build or whatever it is and that’s and that’s Nike like you look at and all we see now is it on everybody’s feet and every it’s one of the biggest brands in the

world but nobody understands the the trials and tribulations that fil I went through to make it happen like yeah and when you’re an entrepreneur man I mean when you’re going through it on a daily basis and you can kind of see you also believe that you know it’s all about belief he talks about that as well in the book but if you believe that what you’re building is going to be the super successful something down the line when you read that book it’s just relatable man it’s just like hey he went through it how can I not get through this if he it gives you a sense of like it gives you a sense of relief like in the fact that you’re like yeah okay like you know that’s just part of the you know part of the deal Journey yeah absolutely um when when we talk about businesses um we I mentioned earlier about ideas right everybody has an idea and it’s it’s ideas are actually the easiest I remember growing up um and thinking I had these Amazing Ideas and I was going to be this incredible entrepreneur because my one idea

was I think it was actually my brothers but I claim that it’s mine just in case he’s listening um was branding and marketing underneath pizza boxes but underneath the actual pizza because then it attracts your attention as you pull up a piece the first thing you see is you know whatever it is and oh what’s that right that’s the idea these are ideas never did anything about it then I married my wife and she comes from Adventure creation um background she grew up in an entrepreneurial family she comes from deoe where they did Venture creation and she taught me all about execution and it was like everybody’s got an idea but it’s about the execution how do you make sure that you guys and I guess it’s going to come down to people again but how do you guys make sure that you execute on on the heaps of opportunities you constantly dealing with you know I think it’s it’s it’s your your ability to say no and I think that I don’t know that that’s where this is going to go but like you know there’s there a lot of things that get

thrown at you or things that get put in your on your your plate and that you know and it’s not only just at work but it’s like in your personal life too right I mean you could probably go to a party or get together or whatever you know every single night right but it’s like more of a discipline to say no than it is than the opportunity to say yes and yeah I mean it’s like for example like in my uh cabinet back here I’ve got like all kinds of bottles of wine and good liquor and like stuff I enjoy drinking when I you know at the end of the day if I’ve had a good day or you know but it’s my discipline to say no like wait for the right time that makes that drink taste that much better when it when it’s the right time and I think it’s the same thing like with with bu with entrepreneur ship or ideas and opportunities is you know it’s your ability to say no that you know it’s a good idea but it doesn’t fit in our wheelhouse or no then it do

the math isn’t going to make sense or no it’s going to take too much away from what we’re trying to execute right now over here and it’s all the NOS that actually allow the yeses to be successful and that’s the way I look at it is you got to be a good um Steward of you know what which ones you say yes to and I liking that too you know I sit next to my CFO like I was saying and and I’ll pitch him I’ll pitch him idea after IA after idea and if he says like if he looks at me and goes no I will I move on like I won’t ever pitch it at him again right but if he looks at he’s like tell me more you know then I’ll put my sales hat on I’m like all right this is what we do we do this do that yeah and then and then he still said once he says no I’m like okay you know it’s that trust factor of okay like you know you know so it’s the people component but it’s also the the ability your ability to

say no is is it just as important as as your willingness to say yes there’s I think it’s in the book um good to Great by Jim Collins and he talks about getting indigestion from opportunities and it’s about you know once you have a business going um there are so many opportunities your coming your way that you really need to focus on um what you’re doing and what your Niche is or what your your core business is and not necessarily chase the shiny things right there will be like you know where you are now I’m sure there are heaps of other opportunities like you say you know you might ask what do you think about this and it’s a no but there’s so many of them that can come up all the time they’ll be you’ll get indigestion from them you rather focus on actually what your core business is and that that can align with pipe and everything else but I mean it’s about all of a sudden saying I want to open a nightclub right it’s a great idea but it’s focus on what we do yeah and there’s part of that

it’s like I I read that book and I really that Jim Collins is I mean he’s as smart as they come right I mean for sure but I also believe too is not everybody wants to build the biggest scrap metal recycling company right like I’m a type of individual that like I enjoy like I mean I grew up in the industry I love it right I mean it’s like my real passion is there other things that you could do other than scrap motorcycling that’s more profitable like you could make more money yeah like let’s be honest like there is like you know would I enjoy it as much probably not like and so there’s a there’s a part of it but I also don’t have the desire to build the biggest one either right I mean my hat goes off to guys like George Adams and riffkin who have built these mon monster companies and they’ they’ they’ve really you know set the bar for you know growth and and consolidation and and really in our industry right and these are just people that from over here on the on the US side set

and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them right but I’ve always just been someone that like I want to build great companies but not necessarily the biggest right if that makes sense because I like to taste and do other things and I don’t like just being siloed into one thing like you know over and over every single day I like the variety of of you know in my day and and and maybe that does hurt me in certain businesses and the fact that I don’t push that thing all the way to the the next Echelon but I’m okay with that you know like that’s fine I don’t I’m I’m good with just having a great small medium-sized business you know that supports a lot of people’s families and support Sports a lot of um you know mouss and and gives people careers and like like that I’m I I’ll sleep I sleep well at night knowing that I’ll never be the biggest I think um I think that could have something to do with how undiagnosed ADHD maybe always want to be working on something different absolutely I mean my my

scrap metal company here we we launched a waste business from it we were going into fencing before we exited we were doing we wanted to do um portaloo so mobile toilets all the sort of things that I thought um really could align with what we were offering but I love the idea of well now I’m going to do a deep dive into portaloo for a while and learn about right because it’s unsexy and I love the unsexy industries yeah so for me it was like let’s go and sex it wherever we can and just align it under one brand but that’s definitely got to do with you know you know I I halfway through a podcast I’m already looking at the other shiny things that are going on um my wife’s like I’m constantly chasing the shiny thing so it’s definitely got something to do with that for both of us and I think yeah and it goes back to like honing in that like what’s your thing that you’re really like you know really in going to be interested in and and that’s something that you need to do I feel like you

have to scratch those itches until you find you know that one two three things that you’re really like passionate about and then it makes it easier because you’re like okay like these are the things I like these are things like you know the industries the businesses that I’m interested in so I’m I’m good now I now I can start really pursuing these and digging digging in and working down you know the value chain and saying okay like how can I how can I build these and build this out as as a whole and we speak a lot about your people and how important people are and it comes across in in almost all your posts and I don’t think anybody could ever doubt you when you say things like it’s my team I always put my team first it’s all my people I surround myself with the best people you you definitely um that comes across um and I absolutely love that there isn’t a there’s nothing fake about that you rarely get that across quite nicely but what about when it comes to Partnerships outside of your your core team you know partnership

with other people aligned in the rest of the industry or or what it might be how do you um treat those um like like say I always feel like pretty much if you if I’m we’re business partners is that what you’re talking about like actually like sharing a check Partners or like like my wife and situ like that no no more about collaboration in the industry that you’re in so it might be utilizing isri um you know reaching out to other people in the industry to help you say for example you want to buy a new piece of equipment and you’re not 100% sure um if it’s a right piece you know calling up somebody that you know in the industry and utilizing those Partnerships or elaboration to help you with your own your own t no I think I mean that’s part of the reason why I started this whole journey down social you know media and marketing was hey I want to grow my business right like that was a big big part of it and I was trying to look for Avenues of growth but um B like I needed to

network I need to build out my network um and trying to figure out who I could call and ask a question or whatever and I and I feel like reason I’m so adamant about doing like people ask me all the time how can you post so much on social right and I was like because I treat it as another job like I treat it as it’s it’s getting me looks it’s getting as far as looks at like different um opportunities whether it’s a business or or a networking opportunity where then I can say you know I Brian and I were talking back to my CFO like he goes I know exactly when you started doing social he’s like I can look it goes and I know exactly by I look at the accounts receivable you know and so I said okay and he goes and I like names the date and I was like you’re right he goes because our account we sold you know scrap to say 20 different people right and then as as starting in 2019 from 2019 on we now sell to say 50 55 different people right well that

only started because I started putting myself out there and our business out there and saying hey we’re producing this item we’re doing this who and then then people started hey like these are guys are a good option maybe you should do do this and so I built my network via just like trying to market the business and and it wasn’t something I like wholeheartedly wasn’t my intention at the gate out the gate it was just kind of trying to like you know kind of get um get some fine fine ways to grow and then it just that was kind of one of the things that came along with it was oh okay like there’s other people that are you know have really good sight and all a sudden I’m like oh what do you know about this how can you help me with that and then by then them asking me right so I always feel like it’s kind of my obligation when people call me or want to get a hold of me or ask me a question so many people have helped me that I’m like I’m all like I’m like obligated

to help because I wouldn’t be where I’m at if people hadn’t picked up the phone when I called right and said hey what do you know about this how can you help me and so like you know I I want to just give back in that regard right and then and I I feel like that’s what I’ve been trying to do and just you know kind of and so yeah that part of it from a partnership standpoint or relationship I just you know I always that old quote you’re your network is your net worth like d a that I mean I’m telling you like that if if I had to pick one of my favorite quotes and I’m a quote guy like that one list sits right up way up there right because you know is is more important than what you know because it’s it’s it’s i’ liken it to your um school when we were growing up it was a lot of memorization and kind of like what do you like how much can you pack into that in my case little brain and and nowadays it’s everybody has access to chat

GPT they have Google like you don’t need to memorize all that because you can now go look and it’ be here’s all the information right it’s the same thing like if you’re just in your little area in my case called Idaho I only have so much access to people and information but if I’m willing to like spread my wings and go looking and put my information say Here I Am that’s what I’m looking for it’s what I’m trying to do all a sudden it’s like getting access to Google for the first time or whatever all a sudden you get like information coming at you eight ways sideways and then you all of a sudden now you could start kind of trying to figure some stuff out um our industry is hyperlocal I mean we’re not competing with people in other states or even in other towns our the material doesn’t have the value to travel far so so there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be and everything you’ve said is true and I know that because about a year ago I reached out to you to talk about granulators and you actually introduced me

to your guy and one of the guys in the state is’s a really good guy and I chatted to him for quite a while um but that just proved to me actually at the time is probably when I started thinking more about collaboration and started going well and before I contacted you was why am I not contacting you why am I not contacting other people that I’m not competing with why aren’t we helping each other in the industry so that’s why I ask about Partnerships because I think we don’t I think we don’t do it right as an industry I don’t think we do enough of it I think people might be intimidated to reach out to other parties um people might feel that if you go old school that nobody really wants to help each other I think the new generation you know we just want to be better together and help each other yeah and once you get get your mind wrapped around the idea that the world is abundant right that there’s there’s there’s tons of resources there tons like we can all win like this isn’t Sports this like the

difference of team sports and business is in team sports only one person wins the championship right you know that yeah but in business I mean multiple people can win right like exactly they might be the biggest recycling company but the top thousand of them still could have a really good year and make money support they’re all successful right so it’s like yeah and once you realize that like then it’s just a matter of you know teaching people how to go get their their piece of that puzzle and I think that’s like you can you can be successful I can be successful and we can all collaborate and scrap truly is you know a fairly localized game but the information now is plentiful right if you know where to look and you know who to to talk to or you’re willing to build out your network I think when people ask me like why would you post you know for a while I was posting who I sold scrap to right and people like why would you post who you sold scrap to and I was like we’re all selling to the same people I’m

like at the end of the day like and the people that that are that are taking care of you they’re paying their bills they’re doing like they’re actually you know doing the right thing like why wouldn’t you want to give them like publicity and say yeah I sold to these guys and they paid their and they were great and I had a great I had a good experience like why wouldn’t you do that like to me it’s like foreign that you wouldn’t like try and help like you know give put somebody else on right like hey like I’m like let’s go let’s do it um Brett when it comes to technology and Innovation what is your thought on technology and how do you incorporate that in your business and also how do you stay up to dat um on all the technology because it’s moving so fast right yeah I think you know I’ve got some people within our organization that are a lot more Tech sappy than me right um I pay attention but I’m I’m not the one that drives that Nick Snider is very Tech driven individual and so he kind

of keeps me a breast of what’s moving what’s available how to navigate and he kind of keeps me in the loop but I’m probably not the most techsavvy individual but I can learn right like I tell people like if there’s an app or if there’s something that it’s going to be good for our business like let me know because I want to learn it but yeah I try not to try to figure out all the new stuff it’s like as soon as I learn something there’s something else coming around the corner so you know and what about on the equipment side how do you stay AB braced I mean I realized there’s obviously scrap Expo coming up there conferences going that’s constantly happening what are you um how do you stay involved in all that I’m just I I’m like an internet scourer right like I’m always like trying to look and see like whether it’s YouTube or watching you know videos or like going to the like the National iery Convention or the scrap Expo to see the equipment and I love talking and I’m I’m like I like to network right so

like I like to get on LinkedIn and see what people are doing like what what what’s what equipment what what are you doing with your you know material how are you processing who’s your consumer and then what kind of package do they need to make that and then all a sudden like what equipments needed or is this is this is this old technology new technology and so it’s more like I am kind of just a connoisseur of like you know processing equipment not that I’m super techsavvy like you know or super mechanically savvy but I’m more like okay I I look at it as if I go to a trade show and I see equipment I don’t look at that equipment like what’s like if my dad was there he’d be like what’s the horsepower you know what’s the what kind of pump is it running like what’s it weigh like he’s doing the calculation of this weighs this much and like what’s it cost and this is a cost you know per pound and I’m more like hm what could I do with that piece of equipment right like I look at it

is how does that how would that make my business better you know and it’s very different schools of thought but you know like it’s I’m looking at it like how could I incorporate that new piece of equipment into my business what I’m doing could it make me an extra five cents a pound or could it you know upgrade a product or could it make me more efficient like that’s how I’ve used Stu you and I are very similar I’m more about the strategy than I am the technical aspect of the equipment so for me it’s it’s exactly the same like if I buy that piece of equipment what am I what can I upgrade what’s my output going to be of this new G what is the what is my rate what is my um price I’m going to achieve by selling that product what Market can I go into now when I can what I can now buy which I couldn’t previously without this equipment yes 100% yeah yeah so that’s that’s also how I look at it yep exactly how it is for me and with them for yeah yeah for you

and we got to be surrounded by the right people that make sure they look at the rest of stuff like your dad would do right you still going to have those people asking those questions it’s not necessarily where I focus um I look at the strategy first and then if that makes sense then I’ll pass it on to somebody who would then focus on all of the the detail around it and from an entrepreneurial standpoint like back to the original you know purpose of the podcast like like you got to find people that don’t have the same strength as you right like when I go looking for people like I don’t need someone that’s a good delegate or somebody that’s more big picture or like whatever like I need like I need certain like people that can crush a certain thing right that I just don’t have that skill set so it’s like more about looking for people to partner with or or bring into your organization that have a different skill set than you have and then you put your skills together and that’s how you really build something you know that can

last is if you guys all think the same way and you’re always you’re all good at marketing but nobody’s good at like the tactics behind it or nobody’s good at you know the the uh the tech side of it or you know whatever that case may be then you’re not you’re just all going to be speaking to each other about the same thing and you’re not going to get the full picture of like what it takes to actually build build it out be successful and for an entrepreneur um there’s a there’s a book that’s written called by Ryan holiday called ego is the enemy and touches on that yeah how good I love it yeah and and it touches on that point you know if you have an ego you can’t see your weaknesses you don’t know your blind spots now if you don’t know that or those you’re not going to hire to cover those so as an entrepreneur I think you have to address early on where are my strengths and where are my weaknesses and higher to cover your weakness yeah and that and and that you and I must probably

have the same library but uh like Ryan holiday is wrote like a I don’t know a handful of books that are just I mean Killers too right like I I really enjoy like what the way he writes and how you know kind of how he attacks a certain topic um but well the number one book of all time for me is obstacle is the way which he wrote which to me is just the way courage is falling it’s I mean they just the list goes on right I mean and I had somebody tell me about another one and I was like man I can’t get enough of that those books right because he just breaks it down for you in pretty you know like sensible terms that you can understand and then then you could start implementing some of that stuff into your own life or your own career and you’re like man I’m significantly farther ahead just by thinking about something a little bit different um exactly right yeah they’re cool tools to have right that little bit of learning with each one of those books just keeps pushing you that little bit

ahead absolutely if you work harder what’s it saying you work harder you’ll outperform anybody with Talent something along those lines absolutely man yeah it’s that’s a I mean if you play sports man I’ve seen guys walk in that look like they should go straight to the NFL but they don’t even start because they ooze with talent but they lack work ethic they lack you know brain power they lack heart they lack h you know it’s just you got to kind of have a complete package to do it I read a it might have been a blog or something the other day and it gave this these incredible stats I can’t remember them right now exactly but it used the statistics to show how talented soccer players don’t make it because at school at um kids level right like how you coach right I coach my 8-year-old and The Talented ones are the ones that are told from an early age that they’re Talent talented so therefore there is this belief that they don’t actually have to work hard whereas the ones that aren’t talented or aren’t the ones that are always player

of the day or whatever might be are working super hard and that becomes you know a muscle that is trained in their body and a work ethic that is trained in their body that that stays with them for life and when they get to this 14 15 16 year age 16-year-old that sort of age all of a sudden they go past the talented because The Talented have training and there there’s this amazing axis where it kind of crosses The Talented you know gets beaten up by the ones that work hard I think it’s in life in general like that it makes so much sense yeah I mean it makes so much sense and I think and I I tell my tell my my two boys I’m like hey guys like there’s somebody out there like they both love to play basketball or and I said there’s somebody out there working like right now that are like owning their skills because they have nothing else to fall back on like they they they basketball like that’s they feel like that’s their only way out whether it’s out of the poor country or out

of the you know the hood or whatever it is like a bad situation like you got to beat that guy like you don’t got to beat your local guy that’s you know in the in the subdivision that’s got the same you know happy family situation as you do like you got to beat the guy that is he he has to do something like that’s the guy right like and so I think it’s the it’s the same concept like you got to you know figure out you know I heard a quote that I’m gonna use tomorrow morning it said you have to hate losing more than you love winning right like the other day so good and I was like h i mean i it’s it’s not that you’re afraid to lose but you just got to hate it so much that you you do all the things that it’s going to take to try and get the win yeah and yeah absolutely to me like it’s not that I am afraid to lose it’s just that I hate to lose you know to where I’m like okay what do I got to do to

figure out to to get it win you know and it comes back to entrepreneurship like that hunger you know that the hunger the hustle they go hand in hand right and it’s exactly like what you’re telling your kids about you know basketball somebody’s training harder and those people are go the hungrier are the ones that are going to win in everything I believe whether it’s in business or sport life whatever it might be the hungrier you are the more chance you’re going to be successful yeah it’s why you can’t you can’t raise entitled kids like yeah if what do they say like if you’re if you’re if you’re fed like you’ll never be hungry like you if you if you’re always fed how are you gonna how are you going to be motivated to go get food like you know you just wait eventually somebody’s going to put some food in the cage like at some point you gota be like no like you gotta go hunt man go get yours you know and and I think a lot of parents missed that point and they’re like oh it’s the society it’s the Internet

it’s social media like no it’s you it’s you like you feeding them like stop feeding them and watch like they’ll figure it out and this could be a whole episode man this could be an episode on its own parenting and keeping hungry I mean I grew up um we we didn’t have a lot of money so um I want to give my kids everything right and that’s the problem I want them to not have to want something right but it’s the biggest Injustice I can do for them like they need to be hungry so it’s that constant fighting and that battle inside you know that I’m constantly going well no you can’t just have a new something because you want it right but then I’m also I couldn’t even have anything when I wanted it like I I’ve worked hard enough to give my kids what I couldn’t have but you know a double- edged sort right yep that’s I think it’s it’s being selfish right like your own selfish yeah yeah it’s not they’re not that’s you you’re right it doesn’t feel like that at the time but that you know should probably

go I should probably speak to somebody else about that yeah maybe lie down on a couch and deal with those issues I’ll be laying there next to you yeah thanks mate thanks um on the topic of social media people that would know you probably got to know you first on LinkedIn and through social media and where they’re all on social media we’re all on social media who are the people that you’re following at the moment who the Trailblazers that you’re saying to these guys it’s probably worth following those guys as well because they’re also doing some cool stuff in our industry or even not in our industry you know I if I’m honest like I just kind of in my own zone right like I pay attention I see what’s going on I’m watching like people posting and doing and podcasts and like I’m I’m very entertained by it but like I pay attention to people that bring like positive energy right like that that want to like that are trying to pump positivity so probably not even in our industry like I probably get my inspiration from people outside of our industry and

then try and bring that in like the same reason why I look for you know people outside of our industry to bring them into our company because I want that fresh like look I want that fresh you know fresh eyes into our company that they they don’t know anything about scrap or pipe or trucks or this or that I want those fresh eyes be like hey why do you guys do that that way and then you’re like I don’t know that’s just the way we’ve always done it like well like maybe we should look at that right and so I look that’s how like when I’m like thinking about like on the social side like I’m watching how people people are doing it from other Industries and I’m like would that fit like within what we’re doing like is that fit in and so I think I probably pay more attention to people outside of our industry and then just kind of talk about you know the stuff I love which is you know our industry and what we’re doing and our people and like I don’t know if that was like a great

answer but that’s the truth look it’s it’s um you making other Industries relatable to hours and it’s not even necessarily Industries right you’re following people that are positive and get you motivated for the day and you bring that into I love yeah I love guys like Gary Vayner Chuck right like that guy’s just he’s a wealth of information he’s smart he’s giving you back like of recently like guys like Alex Heros I feel like he’s got tactics that could really be used on the social side and like the deal making side and then like a guy like like an Andy filla who does that like that his podcast like I love I love podcast too so like I like that kind of like you know get your ass up and go do something like you know today you know type of every once in a while you need that right I don’t need that every day every once in a while I’m like here we go and then you get somebody on there fire you up okay I I go bang this day out you know and and and just or if you’re like

feeling like in a little you need a little pickme up like you got to have kind of the if you just just focus on one way of doing it or one way of thinking I feel like that’s how you get into a rut and so it’s like some days you might want to just be feeling good like I want to listen to some happy ass music or somebody you know doing thinking about something positive or if you need a little pickme up like I need to go get on some other and get somebody that’s like GNA talk some fire into you that day right or I think you just got to kind of Be You know open to the whole thing and and you can’t it’s everything you post isn’t going to hit everybody the same way and I can tell you that randomly and I’ll comment on your post when it happens randomly one of your posts give me the motivation I didn’t know I needed for the day right so I think generally I’m super optimistic I’m always fired up you can ask my kids the drive to school in the morning

is super upbeat right and and sometimes I’ll just like open up my phone and check a post that you made with like a quote and it’ll be that’s exactly what I needed and that’s exactly what I’m feeling bad let’s do this so yeah yeah and I tell people this too like I’ve said this to a lot of people I do those posts as much for me as I do them for anybody else right like if that’s I’m being honest I do that for me sometimes like I need that I need to like get my mind right for the day like understand why I why this quote hit home to me and then I just put it out there right so it’s like my own selfishness like I need to remind myself of why I’m grateful remind myself of what the mission is today or what you know and it’s it’s as much for me as it is for anybody and I’m just hoping there’s other people that get something out of it at the same time right and if they do great and if not like I got what I needed and I’m on

you know it’s game on like let’s go like because I do it at the very beginning of my day like I start my day like okay now I’m let’s go let’s go attack the day yeah and comes across like you doing you right this is me I’m Brett this is what I’m going through right now this is how I’m feeling and it comes across and it’s super authentic and and I think that’s why so many people do follow you and appreciate your post so much I’m glad I’m glad I’m glad it comes across that way because like I said it’s it’s for me man like I do it but I’m also hopeful that that somebody else get something out of it right if one person gets a good like Vibe out of that day you know or like gets changes their mindset for the day or an hour or whatever I’m oh okay like that’s great you know that’s good I got it worked for me for the day and if it gets somebody else get something out of it like yeah it’s like a plus one like absolutely everybody’s something what um what’s

what’s your world looking like in 10 years’s time so not just you know usually I’m interested to know what you think the industry is going to look like but you’ve got so many different Industries you’re involved in you know where do you think you’re going in in the next 10 years I’m I feel like I’m on a similar trip trajectory like I I’m going to keep going and building and I have an awesome like friend group you know guys that that I do business with at work that you know I really enjoy their their company right so I don’t see me exiting or doing anything different other than maybe adding on to what we have already built um and I think that that’s that’s the game plan for me is I love what I do like every piece of it like or else I wouldn’t do it like I just wouldn’t I don’t need that if I don’t like it I don’t do it um as far as like business-wise I do a lot of I don’t like to do like work in the work out in the morning like I there’s I

don’t like doing that but I do it but uh um but I I so I don’t I don’t see like for me personally like I I look at growth like there’s there’s opportunities to build on I’ve got a couple projects in the fire right now I’m super excited about recycled media um it’s kind of a venture I’ve put together a couple people and we just brought on Jennifer Betts to kind of drive the bus on that I mean she’s a killer in her own right you know and so it’s like anything I can do like with you know collaborations like that like I I get excited about because they bring a new level of you know um that I’m I haven’t put all the pieces together you know Nick Snider and I started recycled media together just kind of building our own Brands we brought Jennifer in and we’re like okay like we know how to help build Brands like let’s go and stamp this out and help other small mediumsized operators or even bigger companies build their brand like let’s go show them how to do it right like and and if and

if we charge you x amount but we can make you like three four times that because people you know you build your network it’s easier to hire you know people are aware of your business like I mean that’s a win right like I want to provide value but I mean like then all a sudden you like we’re we’re building something that we can be proud of like you know it goes back to it’s not how much money you make it’s how you make your money it’s like if we make money that’s great but man if I’m helping you make money at the same time all of a sudden like we’re going to be friends right because you’re like man you help me make money like I’m I’m good with that like and we got to do business together like and that’s what the that gets me excited is like yeah I don’t know that I’d have that opportunity if I wouldn’t have went hard on the social side and like kind of built our brand but I also wouldn’t know how to build a brand if I didn’t just kind of Nick and I

just start putting the pieces together you know and Nick Snider is you know he’s behind the scenes man that guy is I mean he’s one of those dudes like you know you you that build and can do stuff and I mean I I couldn’t be more you know proud to have him as part of it and then bringing Jennifer on who who’s just you know a builder in her own right I mean I think it’s that stuff like that projects like that man that businesses getting started that that have real potential that’s what gets me excited I don’t know Nick well but um Jane I’ve had quite a few chats too she’s an absolute weapon so yeah I’m really excited to see how recycled media goes no doubt it’s going to do phenomenal things and and marketing did such massive things for my scrap business here in New Zealand we were new to New Zealand we didn’t have a network um I relied on marketing to grow our business and it happened very quickly we had way bigger customer support than we could have ever imagined and I’m always super optimistic and it kind

of shot outshot any of my projections because of our marketing you know we put ourselves we showed ourselves in the light that we wanted to which was very different to what the the normal scrappies were’re doing um and it had a massive effect so yeah I’d say to anybody you know reach out to to you guys from recycled media because it’ll have a massive impact on their business I’m also just actually having because this is our our entrepreneurship masterclass I’m doing a marketing master class in about four weeks with Jen as well so she’ll come on and we’ll try and we’ll try and help all exporters pick her brain yeah she’s she’s good yeah she knows she knows her stuff she loves the industry too right like like you get a Mark I always the problem is you say you go hire a marketing company well then you have to teach them your industry right like it’s like a whole another it’s a whole another like and versus like what I told her is like I don’t want to have a marketing company where we’re helping like automotive shops and ice cream shops like

I only want to do it if we can just focus on the industry CU nobody has to teach us what our customers are looking for nobody has to teach us like how to build the brand within our industry and so it goes back to I don’t want to build the biggest marketing company right I want to build a great company that serves this Niche really well and it’s the same concept I’ve always kind of thought and then knowing that she’s been around you know everything from uh from flak to I mean works for recycling companies to DJJ on the buy side like she brings a lot of knowledge just from different angles and you know putting her with Nick and myself and we got some other people that are involved it’s like that that’s the game right like that’s you you don’t have to teach us the industry like we already know it’s just a matter of you doing your part and like let’s go hit the ground money and if anybody doubts Jen’s ability to attract attention go and look at her post from the other day where she’s wearing I think three

or four sunglasses um and talk about attracting attention I commented I was like that is unbelievable like I couldn’t help but watch the video right I think she was talking about um something was cool L L LinkedIn exactly why you should be in LinkedIn so yeah I absolutely love that so yeah she know she knows this stuff she’s an absolute weapon Brett that’s kind of um comes to the end of the anop ership stuff it’s been it’s been amazing but I have to finish with a few questions about getting to know Brett a little bit more we always hear you interviewing other people um I think some of these questions were already probably answered but but I’m going to shoot them at you anyway what’s your favorite TV series or movie you know I’m a Netflix guy like I’m a I’m a um I’m a documentary like junkie right like all facets murder Sports I mean business like anything that’s sport murders yeah yeah exactly Aaron Hernandez you know but like but you know like just anything that’s that’s a real life documentary like that’s my jam so I don’t have one favorite one

but that genre is like hits The Sweet Spot me what’s your what’s your favorite place to visit ah you know I I went to Ireland like five years ago go with my wife and I wasn’t anticipating liking it like I just we went there cuz my wife was in the wedding and I was like but it blew my mind like I was like man this is like place is pretty cool and like you know it’s it’s not I’m not a beach guy like I don’t mind going and doing it with my wife loves it and I’ll do it but like the history like you think things are old in like the West like oh that’s like in the 40s you know like 1940s like oh no like they got castles and Rock walls and like you’re like it just like messed my whole brain up like I was like I didn’t even know stuff could be that old you know and so because I’m not a huge history buff so I but I I really I I gained a lot of appreciation for that so like that’s the one that like top of mine

kind of comes back I’m like that was pretty pretty cool and the Irish in general all a great great people man yeah they made the trip you know they oh so we um in our rugby season always in the offseason there was some Irish Scottish or Welsh people who used to come and play with us in their offseason because we playing different seasons um they are hilarious man they are such good people and the best is after a few drinks they’re almost impossible to understand the more they drink the harder it is to understand them it’s yeah it’s classic I love I love um what’s your favorite book is it true dog I guess we were talking about lately yeah I really I really enjoyed that I really enjoyed that book um I’ve got a I’ve got a I go through I cycle through books right like I I I go more like authors like that Ryan holiday I mean that guy is he’s just he breaks stuff down so well Jim Collins is a great writer um I there’s a hate I hate to say there’s like one specific book when I was

growing up I used to love to read sports biographies just probably goes by why I like you know because I like what reading about the struggle and like how did you how did you get to he and build this and as I’ve gotten older like probably less sports biographies and more um biographies in general of individuals and kind of their Journey because of just understanding and appreciating the journey aspect of building things right so yeah yeah that’s probably speaking to genres like it’s probably my favorite genre book right now yeah have you ever read the trillion dollar coach I’m guessing you have no I have not so I read it a few years ago I think he’d love it it’s about it’s about an American football coach and he goes on to sit on the board I’m going to get this wrong but I think he sat on the board of Apple he sat on board of some of the largest companies in America um he passed away but yeah the book is incredible so I think you should have a read yeah it’s how he brings this coaching of sports into business and

he ends up being like this captain of of Industry like he’s just incredible I like it yeah put that list trillion dollar c yeah um the last question is favorite quote I mean we’ve probably done a whole heap of them already but do you have one that sticks out to you the harder I work the luckier I get man like beautiful man that’s that’s it like you know I I don’t know I I got one on my wall I’m just looking at it right now it says everyone wants to eat but few are willing to hunt hunt you know like everybody wants to eat good everybody looks good but man how many are you willing to like to go out and hunt for like what it really takes and like those two for me like probably are right up there I sums you up as well it’s a it’s it’s a great note to end on so Brett thank you so much for being a part of Bor Scrappy it’s been amazing having you on thank you for the opportunity man I it’s been great talking to you and I look forward to communicate

and just you know and get to know you more as as time goes by and your wife like put this in leave this in I did I talked to her the other day like you you batted above your average like she’s smart she that’s a compliment for you like what you know whatever that combination of the ying and the Yang whatever you guys have going on there like you got she’s smart man and and she’s with it and you could just tell like you guys have that that chemistry and and I I’m I’m happy for you for you the two of you guys he a great a great mix and a great uh a great couple so you know good for you thank you mate appreciate it h cheers BR thank you mate cheers man thank you